“Este som que se sente cá dentro!”: um estudo etnomusicológico sobre os bombos portugueses

Abstract

This is an ongoing PhD research on Portuguese Bombos supported by the theoretical framework of Sound Studies. Bombos is a term referring to: 1) a percussion instrument with its own organology; 2) a set of instruments consisting of bombos, caixas and in some contexts of a melodic instrument such as the fife, the bagpipe and/or the accordion; 3) a predominantly male, collective, intergenerational performative practice integrated in local festivities. The study stands on observation, participation and analysis along with the Grupo Regional de São Simão Os Completos and the Grupo de Bombos da Casa do Povo do Paul. In the scarce literature, it is easy to find references that, based on a very narrow understanding of music, stress the “noise”, the “thunderous crash”, a “noise that drives people away” produced by a "diabolical orchestra" through the "infernal meeting of various percussion instruments” that make "music without music" (Pimentel 1902; Lambertini 1902; Herculano 1855 in Braga 1885; Oliveira 1966). Stasi (1998) and Santos (2015) allude to the essentialist appraisals that depreciate percussion under the premise of being excessively simple and defective. Taking into account that in both localities Bombos are central in guaranteeing social well-being and sustaining the collective memory, through a regular coming together for rehearsals and performances, and maintenance of artisans with the associated transmission of knowledges, this research aims to overcome all these judgments. It therefore suggests that Bombos should be approached not in terms of their noise, but of the potential and impact of their sound on local social life (Feld 1990, 2004, 2012; Erlmann 2004; Sterne 2012; Stoller 1989). Preliminary fieldwork reveals, in this regard, the intense meaning that the practice and the sound of these instruments have for local actors. António Duarte, for example, a bombo player from Paul, pointing into his chest, clarifies that circumstance by synthesizing his experience in the phrase “this sound that one feels here inside!”.